Downtime
by LothCat
Summary: It's not all fighting the blowing things up and being in constant danger. Being a member of the Ghost crew comes with a lot of general life.
1. Chapter 1

Sabine examined the mask filter critically before pressing it to her face and breathing in to test and then handing it over.

"Here, I'll probably need to replace some of the fittings after this, but for now it's still good enough. And if we're lucky we won't need it, but if not you always want it in place before you start opening things up." She gestured to the table which looked like it was littered with a random assortment of odds and ends.

"Got it." Ezra pulled the mask on, watching intently.

"This time through I'll do everything, and then you can give it a shot." She opened up the first casing, showing how the receiver would fit in at the end, how everything would come together, putting her own filter and goggles on. Ezra had mentioned being interested in how she made her little miracles and after a few days to make sure it was genuine interest and not just wanting to kill downtime before she set up the demonstration.

"What we're working with now is a fairly weak charge, and we're using stable materials. So if you do screw up you're not going to lose a limb, maybe a few fingers." She paused to wiggle her fingers at him playfully before going back.

"You have such confidence in me, really. See a lot of people loose fingers?" Ezra tried to lean in without blocking her view, to watch her twist wires in place.

"Yeah, doesn't matter how good you are, all it takes is one mistake, one bad day. Usually with stuff exactly like this that you've done a thousand times and you think you could do it in your sleep. But you can't. " She said the last part forcefully enough that Ezra rocked back a little, even if it wasn't actually directed at him.

"I'm paying attention, I promise. I'm well aware most stuff comes with real consequences. Why would you want to do this thought, it seems a little, uh…" He bit his lip, trying to think of a way to phrase it that didn't sound insulting.

"At odds with my usual artistic flare? Lots of reasons. I'm good at it, for one thing. And another because this part's fiddly and dangerous there are lots of people willing to pay a lot of money to have someone else do it for them." She carefully fitted the last parts together, holding up the fat little disk. "Alright, your turn.

"If these aren't very powerful, why are we making them? Or are they coming back apart next?" Ezra laid out the materials, concentrating on copying what she'd done.

"Rookie mistake kid, it's not the strength of the charge it's what you use it for. One like this is perfect for frying a control panel, or pack it with a potassium nitrate and sugar shell and you've got a smoke bomb to fog a whole airfield. Bigger's not always better, especially when you have to worry about getting yourself away from the blast." She watched, ready to correct Ezra at the first sign of a mistake. "Wrap that wire another time around, it would work like that, but if it comes loose you've got a dud."

Ezra nodded, not looking up from the delicate work. It took a few more corrections but finally there was a second disk beside the first. Outwardly there was no sign that one had taken so much longer and was not nearly so neat and pretty on the inside. "So if they're not useless, now what?"

"Now comes the fun part." There was a very good reason they were doing this planet side and she scooped them both up, fitting them inside a thin metal shell she'd made earlier. "Want a long timer to plant it or set it for impact?" Sabine walked them both farther from the ship where a broken crate was painted with an Imperial logo and target.

"You don't think it would be smarter to save them for later? I mean…"

"Nope, not how I learned. First time you make it you get to test it, see right away if you managed to make it right. "

"Then impact." Ezra grinned, fiddling with the bomb to switch it to the pressure trigger.

"Perfect, go for it."

Ezra took aim, activating it and sending it flying. Where it hit the crate it erupted in a blaze of orange smoke, curling up and away.

"Perfect." Sabine launched hers before the smoke had a chance to clear, greenish blue smoke blossoming from the center. "I added the colors, but the boom is all yours, wouldn't have gone off otherwise."

Ezra didn't seem to mind, still grinning. "So are we done?"

"Almost, we still have to clean everything up. Protective gear stays on until it's up" She warned, seeing the hand going for the goggles to get a better look at the slowly clearing smoke. Ezra made a disappointed little groan, but left them on as they walked back.

Everything was checked over and carefully packed away before they both started back to the ship, an easy quiet between them as they waited for the ramp to finish lowering.

"So what did you think?"

"I think…" Ezra grinned a little ruefully "I should probably leave most of that to the expert, but a few more lessons and I could get good enough to help you out with some of it. At least hand you the right containers and tools without handing you the wrong ones or having them blow up in my face."

Sabine laughed at that, starting onto the ramp. "Sounds like a plan then."

* * *

Author Note: I want to give a little note about this, sometimes I get ideas for little slice of life moments that don't really fit in with anything else. It'll be a collection of short scenes with no real plot, and thus I don't have a regular update schedule planned.


	2. Chapter 2

Ezra pushed his hair out of his face for what seemed like the hundredth time just that hour, making an annoyed sound. He couldn't concentrate on the datapad he was supposed to be reading, not when his hair kept getting in his eyes. Then again it had been how long since he'd cut his hair? At least half a year before he'd joined the Ghost crew, maybe longer. He didn't pay much attention to the exact time, just that it had been a while. He knew a good way to fix it at least. He decided he wasn't going to get much done until his hair was taken care of.

He knew Kanan had a pair of clippers for keeping his beard neatly trimmed, that would work. Probably even better than the clippers he'd had before. At least they would if he could find them. He checked all the storage compartments in the fresher with no luck. He grumbled, roughly brushing his hair back out of his eyes yet again as he looked out. He could just wait for Kanan to get back from the supply run, but that could take hours. The sooner he took care of it the sooner he could get back to finishing his reading and maybe actually have some time to himself.

Ezra started back out into the hall, then paused. Sabine's hair wasn't that much shorter than his, maybe she'd have something to at least keep it out of his eyes until he could clip it off. With that thought he was detouring to her room, knocking on it.

Sabine took her time answering it, but it did eventually open."What?"

"I need a favor." Ezra started, scrunching his nose as his hair flopped right into his face again.

"Have anything for payment?" Sabine cocked a hip to lean against the door frame, watching him.

"My undying loyalty and affection?" Ezra gave her his best grin, relaxing some. If she actually didn't want to be bothered she wouldn't tease, just tell him to go.

"That and six credits will get you a bag of chips. What is it?" Sabine asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Do you know where Kanan keeps his beard trimmer?" Ezra figured it couldn't hurt to ask first.

"Not a clue. I don't think you're going to need to borrow that for a little bit longer though. Your three chin hairs aren't that untamed." Sabine grinned.

"Not for that, my hair's getting in my way. Do you have something to hold it back?" Ezra reached up to brush it all back, trying to gather it in a ponytail. The front pieces flopped right back down into his face. "It's too long to stay out of my eyes, but it's still too short in front to pull back."

"So you just want to clip it all off?" Sabine straightened up at that.

Ezra shrugged "It's easiest, it's all the same length then and it takes it a while to grow back out to the point it's in my way again."

"Would you rather just get it cut shorter?" Sabine offered.

Ezra blinked "You'd cut it for me?"

"Not me, but it's not like I cut my own hair. I'm sure they'll be willing to cut yours too." Sabine reached up to ruffle her own hair. "Dying the tips would be a lot harder without help too."

"Alright, so… who cuts it anyway? Hera?" Ezra wasn't sure if he should ask about dye or not. If Sabine wanted to he'd have a hard time saying no, she'd probably make it look amazing, but he hadn't ever really considered it before.

"Hera?" Sabine laughed softly at that. "No, not Hera."

"Oh, um, Kanan?" Ezra tried not to feel too embarrassed, Hera probably wouldn't have a lot of experience with hair, would she?

"I don't know if he can or not, but seeing how he does his own I never asked." Sabine turned to start heading back into her room. "I'll get what we need, meet us in the galley in just a few minutes"

"But that only leaves… hey!" Ezra frowned when he ended up talking to the closed door. "Maybe I'll just shave my head anyway." He really didn't want to, though. It always looked too close to the military haircuts cadets were encouraged to get.

* * *

Ezra sat cross-legged on the oversized wooden chair, facing the back of it while Zeb draped a sheet over his back and around his shoulders. "Are you sure you know what you're doing? You don't exactly have hair, fur yes, but…"

"I know what I'm doing." Zeb grumbled, starting to work a brush through Ezra's hair, straightening it.

"He doesn't have hair on his head, but he does have a beard. And he does more than just clip it down and call it a day." Sabine pointed out, sitting close to watch.

"Is that what takes so long in the 'fresher every morning?" Ezra asked, teasing some.

"Maybe, now hold still. Be a shame if I missed and snipped off your ear." Zeb worked out a snarl surprisingly gently, making sure it was all brushed out before picking up the scissors. "How do you want it to look?"

"Uh…" Ezra was caught a little off guard. "I don't know, about like how it looked when I first came on board? Maybe just a little shorter? I like it like that."

"You don't want to take the chance to experiment?" Sabine asked.

"Ezra started to shake his head and caught himself just in time. "Maybe next time.

"Right." Zeb started slowly cutting, combing it out and snipping a section at a time.

Despite himself Ezra slowly found himself relaxing. Zeb wasn't rough at all and having his hair brushed out and played with was strangely relaxing. He wasn't about to admit it to either of them though.

* * *

"There." Zeb said, starting to tug the sheet off from around where it was tugged.

Ezra was surprised, it hadn't taken nearly as long as he thought it might. As soon as he was free from the sheet he turned to get off the chair, reaching for the mirror Sabine had. She handed it over and he peered into it, sighing in relief. He looked… well, the same. Just with his hair shorter, exactly how he wanted it. He'd worried a little that Zeb was going to deliberately do something to it to mess it up, but then hair grew back and he'd been planning on shaving it off anyway before he'd known this was an option.

"It looks good." He reached up to ruffle it, no getting in his eyes either, then handed the mirror back to Sabine.

"Well good as it's going to look on you, anyway." Zeb snorted, gathering everything back up to put away. "You get to clean up the hair before Hera sees it."

"Right." Ezra stepped over the clumps of dark blue hair on the floor careful not to track them everywhere so he could grab the broom and dustbin. "And Zeb? Thanks."

"Don't mention it, kid." Zeb said easily enough, heading back to whatever he'd been doing before Sabine fetched him.

"When you need a haircut again just poke him about it, and if you do want to change it up I have a few ideas…" Sabine sat back, not offering to help with the cleanup. Ezra didn't blame her, she'd already helped a great deal more than he expected.

"Yeah? I will, thanks." Ezra finished cleaning up, grinning when he realized he hadn't had to push his hair out of his face once during the cleanup, disposing of the clipped hair so he could get back to his reading.


	3. Chapter 3

Some discussion of scars/past injury, nothing explicit.

* * *

"Come on, kid, hurry up. Everyone else is probably already waiting for us." Zeb finished getting his armor tugged off and set aside, and started on his jumpsuit.

"Maybe I'll pass, lots of stuff I could be doing. Studying up on, uh, stuff, Jedi practice, I think there's a worn spot on my pants leg I should probably patch up…" Ezra fidgeted, not getting any further than taking his vest off, stalling.

"No way." Zeb grinned slowly, enjoying his nervousness a little too much. "The only real reason to come to this damp rock is the mineral springs. We don't want to seem out of place, now do we?"

They were waiting for one of Hera's informants to arrive, it was a lot less suspicious to both be tourists passing through than to go to the informant directly and risk drawing attention. As it was, the informant would just be one of dozens arriving and leaving this small resort every day.

"I'm surprised you even want to get soaked, you usually complain about your fur getting wet. Plus you'll probably shed all in the water." Ezra delayed just a little longer, even as Zeb shoved a towel at him.

"Warm water and cold are two different things, and they have drying stations to deal with fur. Even if they didn't, I'm not going to compromise our cover because of a little wet fur. Now get your towel and let's go." Zeb picked up his own and slung it over a shoulder as Ezra finally gave in and started tugging his jumpsuit off, wrapping his towel around his waist.

"You're going like that?" Ezra glanced over Zeb. At least his fur got slightly thicker and fluffier on his belly and down, so nothing really showed.

"Yeah, now let's go." Zeb started out of the room they were sharing with Kanan, starting down the hall. Ezra scrambled to keep up and keep his towel on.

"But what about, you know, everyone else?" Ezra asked, then huffed when Zeb chuckled at him. "Look, it's not my fault Lothal didn't do the whole public bath thing."

"Just don't look too close below water level and you won't embarrass yourself." Zeb offered, and then he put the code into the door, opening it to step through into the pool room.

"Still don't know why we couldn't have rented two pools." Ezra complained. The air was heavy and wet with an almost metallic tang in it from the natural minerals in the water that supposedly made them better for soaking in than other waters. As far as he was concerned water was water.

"Did you want to pay for the second one?" Sabine piped up from the pool. It was down below floor level, the sides made to look like some sort of carved stone. It was large enough that all three of them were spaced out with plenty of room for both of them to join with no crowding.

Ezra flushed, dropping the towel onto the rack with the others and hurrying to follow Zeb to the pool. Once he was in it wasn't so bad, he had to admit. The water was pleasantly warm, and when he took a cautious glance around Hera, Sabine, and Kanan were all sunk down to roughly their collarbones in the murky mineral water. As long as he followed Zeb's advice he shouldn't accidentally stare at anything he wasn't supposed to.

Ezra didn't mean to really look, but a stripe of discolored skin on Hera's shoulder caught his eye and he found himself trying to figure out what it was. It ran from the top of her shoulder down across her exposed upper chest and then into the water.

"Wondering about this?" Hera tapped her shoulder. Ezra hadn't realized he'd been staring at it and he ducked his head a little.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry. You don't have to answer." Ezra said apologetically.

"No, it's fine." Hera chuckled softly. "A piece of equipment overheated and exploded while I was working nearby, got a big piece of shrapnel lodged right in my chest. Lucky it didn't get deeper than it did or I'd have been in trouble. As it was it still scarred. "

"I had a defective bomb go off in my hand once." Sabine held up her hand, wiggling her fingers." Had to get two of them replaced." She'd had that hand resting on the side of the bath out of the water, but Ezra just assumed there wasn't much of a reason for it.

"We're not starting this again, are we?" Zeb grumbled, and Sabine laughed.

"You're just jealous because Lasat fur grows right over scar tissue and leaves it rumpled looking, but unless we shave you there's no showing off your battle scars." Sabine teased gently.

"Can you not get your hand wet?" Ezra asked. Though he'd noticed before when Zeb was shirtless he had several places where his fur looked crinkled and never seemed to brush out like the rest. He'd just assumed his armor pressed it down.

"I can, but if the synthskin seals aren't perfect water can leak in and then I have to clean them out. Too much of a hassle." Sabine rested her hand back on the edge of the pool.

"None of my scars really come with a story. Or rather they all come with the same one." Kanan shrugged a little, amused.

"Got into a fight, then the other guy pulled a vibroknife." Hera chuckled. "We've heard."

"What about you, Ezra?" Sabine asked.

Ezra considered, most of the more interesting stories hadn't left scars and there were a few he wasn't ready to talk about, not out here.

"Got caught stealing once, it was in someone else's territory and their boss didn't like that much. They wanted to teach me a lesson but I think I learned the wrong one, get better than them so next time I wouldn't get caught. " Ezra pulled himself out of the water a little to turn around and show his back. The whip marks had scarred, even if he couldn't see them easily he knew they had to be fairly impressive.

Ezra could hear someone suck in a breath and then Zeb's muttered 'Karabast'. He tried to think if there had ever been a point Zeb might have seen his back before then, and realized it might be the first time. As cold as the ship was he didn't spend any longer without clothes than he had to for showering. He settled back in the water, turning around again.

"Looks like those hurt." Sabine said sympathetically, Ezra shrugged a little.

"Yeah, but not like shrapnel or losing fingers." Ezra pointed out.

"Just don't get any bright ideas to turn this into a competition." Kanan warned him and Ezra laughed.

"No plans for that, don't worry." Ezra relaxed back, feeling a little better about this.

"I think I've sweated long enough." Sabine said, roughly combing her fingers through her damp hair, then she stood. Ezra wasn't expecting her to move so quickly and he didn't look away in time. Then he just stared, Sabine was wrapped from chest to mid thigh in some sort of neutral colored fabric that looked to be shedding the water rather than staying wet.

"You're not naked." Ezra blurted out, then flushed dark. He hadn't intended to say that quite so obviously.

Sabine just gave him a confused look. "No, I'm not. Didn't Zeb tell you about the soak clothes that came with the bath rental?"

"No." Ezra shot the Lasat a dirty look, Zeb just grinned.

"Might, heh, might have slipped my mind. Not like they're required." Zeb sounded far too amused with himself. Ezra aimed a kick at him under water, but with the resistance he was mostly just shoving with his foot.

"Jerk." Ezra still felt his cheeks burning with embarrassment, but as pranks went he had to admit Zeb had gotten him good.


End file.
